KIRKUS REVIEW

Think The Road intricately wrapped around Station 11 with a dash of Oryx and Crake.

First-time
British novelist Clark Windo pushes all the right buttons in this post-apocalyptic
mashup. Imagine a world in which everyone has the Feed implanted in their
brains. The internet and all it offers is yours in seconds. No need to read, no
need to even talk; people can even access other’s thoughts. Tom Hatfield, a
psychotherapist, and his pregnant wife, Kate, a teacher, are eating in a
restaurant in, maybe, England. Tom’s father had something to do with creating
the Feed. Tech-speak abounds: “emotis,” “adrenalspike,” “ent.” Suddenly, there
are “gasps and a gabble of confused words actually vocalized out in the real.”
Everyone is bombarded with the news, something about an Arctic-South war; President
Taylor is assassinated. The Collapse has occurred. Smoke pours in, there are
distant detonations, “birds…sprayed upwards…machines hurtled from the sky” and
then, “under the booms,” there is the “approaching sound of silence.” The Feed
vanishes. Jump ahead six years. Something has killed millions of people. Tom, Kate,
6-year-old Bea, and a few others are living in huts in a grim, desolate camp.
The time frame is uncertain; seasons pass. They have to forage for food. They
have to watch each other sleep, otherwise they’re “taken over.”(Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers.) If that
does happen, they'll need to be killed. Tom had to kill his brother. People
have to relearn everything in order to survive, even language, and talk to each
other. Bea is abducted. They head out to find her. Something’s wrong with Kate.
The twisty, slowly unwinding tale is laid out in tiny bits and pieces of
information. The characters aren’t very well-developed. Windo demands quite a
bit from the reader, and some might give up on this trip.

There’s a smart
and provocative story in here somewhere, but Clark Windo’s pedestrian prose and
overdone narrative tricks smother it.

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